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Supreme Court To Decide Whether Or Not You Own What You Own

Posted by Unknown on from the industry-argues-"ownership"-hurts-revenues dept.

Jafafa Hots writes "The Supreme Court is set to decide, in the case of Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, whether or not First Sale Doctrine applies to products made with parts sourced from outside the United States. If the Supreme Court upholds an appellate ruling, it would mean that the IP holders of anything you own that has been made in China, Japan or Europe, for example, would have to give you permission to sell it. Your old used CDs, cell phone, books, or that Ford truck with foreign parts? It may not be yours to sell unless you get explicit permission and presumably pay royalties. 'It would be absurd to say anything manufactured abroad can't be bought or sold here,' said Marvin Ammori, a First Amendment lawyer and Schwartz Fellow at the New American Foundation who specializes in technology issues."

4 of 543 comments (clear)

  1. The case is being misrepresented here.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The case is regarding items manufacturered in foreign countries and intended for sale in those countries. NOT items manufactured in foreign countries intended for sale in the United States. At issue is having someone buy things cheaper overseas and resell them cheaper here in the US than the manufacturers intended US price.

    That's still horrible - but not nearly as bad as the article summary would have you believe.

  2. Looks like an end-run around illegal importing by concealment · · Score: 5, Informative

    The guy who's being brought to trial seems to have imported enough textbooks to earn $1.2 million. That means this isn't really a case about reselling your car, but about whether private citizens can buy a bunch of stuff abroad and re-sell it here for profit because it's cheaper abroad.

    You can track the legislation here:

    1. Re:Looks like an end-run around illegal importing by Fr33z0r · · Score: 5, Informative

      ...this isn't really a case about reselling your car, but about whether private citizens can buy a bunch of stuff abroad and re-sell it here for profit because it's cheaper abroad.

      And yet this is the core of how most companies operate these days. Buy cheap abroad (labour, manufacturing, components etc) and sell at home for profit.

      It's sad that what has long been considered business as usual for companies is legally questionable for individuals.

  3. The article says something different by Albanach · · Score: 5, Informative

    So having read the article, it doesn't say the same thing as the summary. To be fair, I haven't read any of the court paperwork, so the publisher could indeed be claiming that you cannot sell something with foreign parts.

    This case, however, stems from a student buying textbooks at lower cost overseas and then selling them in the US on eBay.

    I'm not saying it's good, right or proper that the publisher wishes to restrict these sales. I simply want to highlight that it's a very different proposition saying you cannot resell in the US a complete product purchased in a developing market where the manufacturer sells at a lower cost as opposed to being unable to sell anything that contains a foreign part.

    I believe the situation the publisher supports is already the case in Europe, where Levi Strauss won a battle against supermarkets who were importing grey market denims and selling them at a lower cost than licensed distributors could buy the jeans in the UK.